Workshop 1: Creating a Community of Writers

Workshop
1 explores the components of a community of writers and what teachers
can do to create and foster such a community. After a brief introduction
to the goals of all eight workshop sessions, middle school teacher and
writing expert Linda Rief and several of the teachers whose classrooms
are featured in Write in the Middle share strategies they use to build
a safe writing environment for their students starting at the beginning
of the school year.

In separate extended classroom segments, Velvet McReynolds, a seventh-grade
teacher from Hoover, Alabama, demonstrates two community-building strategies:
the Monday Meeting and teacher as writer. The Monday Meeting, a frequent
activity in Velvet's classroom, allows students to share personal
information with their classmates in a non-threatening setting, while
the teacher-as-writer strategy provides students with a model for participation
in the writing community.

During a third extended classroom segment, fifth-grade teacher Jack
Wilde demonstrates one of his daily routines: the read-aloud. In a related
interview, Jack explains how reading books aloud to his class helps to
build a successful writing community by giving the students shared experiences
with reading and responding to writing.

Through additional classroom examples, teacher discussions, and interviews,
Workshop 1 also examines how room arrangements can encourage written
and spoken communication and how sharing their writing helps students
become part of the writing community.

"Creating a Community of Writers" closes with an exploration
of some of the psychological and emotional needs specific to young adolescents
and their learning. After National Middle School Association Executive
Director Sue Swaim offers insight into the unique changes middle school
students are undergoing, three of the teachers discuss how these developmental
issues affect their instructional choices.